Sun tracker

ABSTRACT

The basic idea of this invention is to use many small solar energy transfer units like solar cells, each of them is of the same size and installed on the surface of a spherical structure and toward a certain direction in a 3-D space, the position of each unit is saved in a database, by using a comparison unit to compare the output of these solar energy transfer units, the optimized sun direction can be determined; a compass maybe used to install the said sun tracker in a fixed place.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent filing claims the benefit of earlier filed provisionalapplications: Application No. 60/861,212, filing date Nov. 27, 2006,Conformation No. 3829, filing receipt *OC000000021502638*, Title, Suntracker.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO SEQUENCE LISTING A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING

Not applicable.

COMPACT DISC APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Solar energy becomes more and more efficient, with its low pollution andthe unlimited renewable energy resources; it has a bright future for thefuture. In order to make good use of the solar energy, a simple and highprecise sun tracker is necessary. Most of the existing sun tracker iseither less precise or more complicated; the invention of this suntracker is to propose another kind of simple sun tracker with highprecision.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention is a device which is able to tell the direction of thesun, it is simple and also could be of high precision; by using thisdevice, the positions of some the solar energy devices driven byhydraulic systems or a electromechanical systems could be modified towork toward the sun direction, this way, the utilization of the sunenergy can be increased to a higher level.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

Not applicable.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Solar energy has a broad application as a main source of low pollutionand renewable energy resources. sun-tracker which is able to determinethe optimal direction for a solar energy device to work toward, somesolar energy transfer unit is fixed on a basic spherical structure andeach of them towards a certain direction, the direction of all saidsolar energy transfer units around said basic spherical structurerepresent almost all the directions in a 3-D space, except a smallsurface area will be used to fix the sun tracker; If sun tracker isfixed, then the working direction of each solar energy transfer unit iscertain and by comparing the output from each solar energy transferunit, the optimal direction for other solar energy devices located atthe same area can be determined; said sun tracker comprising,

1. what is claimed is a sun-tracker which is able to determine theoptimal direction for a solar energy device to work toward, some solarenergy transfer unit is fixed on a basic spherical structure and each ofthem towards a certain direction, the direction of all said solar energytransfer units around said basic spherical structure represent almostall the directions in a 3-D space, except a small surface area will beused to fix the sun tracker; if sun tracker is fixed, then the workingdirection of each solar energy transfer unit is certain and by comparingthe output from each solar energy transfer unit, the optimal directionfor other solar energy devices located at the same location can bedetermined.
 2. said sun tracker comprising a basic spherical structure,said basic spherical structure could be a spherical or a spherical basedpolyhedron structure, optionally the polyhedron are a regularpolyhedron.
 3. said sun tracker comprising polygon solar-energy transferunit, said polygon solar-energy transfer units are attached to saidbasic spherical structure or the surface of said polyhedron structure;optionally each of the said polygons are regular polygons; all of saidpolygon solar-energy transfer units are of the same working area, thesame photo to electricity, photo to thermo or photo to other kind ofenergy transfer efficiency; each of said polygon solar-energy transferunits is fixed on said basic spherical structure surface toward acertain direction, optionally each said polygon solar-energy transferunit is tangential to said basic spherical structure surface at theattach point or attach surface of said polygon solar-energy transferunit to said basic spherical structure.
 4. said solar-energy transferunit is able to transfer the solar energy it received to certain outputsignals like electrical voltage, electrical current, temperature,pressure, stress, strain etc; said solar-energy transfer unit could bebut not limited to photovoltaic cell etc; optionally electricalresistances or other elements are used to help obtain said outputsignals from said solar energy transfer units; optionally a databasecould be built to store the information such as number, relativelocation and working direction of each solar energy transfer units; acompare circuit is used to calculate out the one with the maximum outputand the one with the minimum output, optionally a small controller withsome or all of these functionalities are included, like comparisonfunctions, memory functions ets.